Christ is Life Podcast

If you have your Bibles with you, which I hope that you do, or a device with a Bible app on it, we in Acts. Chapter Nine, we are continuing our life in the Spirit message series, where we've been going verse by verse all the way through the book of Acts. And today we're going to be picking up in Acts chapter nine, verse 32 and we're going to we're going to finish out the chapter. You may have been here last week when we had our unity service, one service together, and you know, if you were that we covered the first 31 chapters of chapter nine, and it was all about a guy named Saul, who we know in the rest of the Bible in Acts, is known as Paul. But it was about his dramatic conversion, and how God transformed his life from being a persecutor of people who believed in Jesus to himself believing in Jesus and then using him to tell other people to believe in Jesus. And of course, it was this dramatic conversion, and much of the rest of the book of Acts is going to be about his missionary journeys and how God used him to reach the Gentiles with the gospel. But Paul, I mean, excuse me, Luke does not go right into those missionary journeys. He tells us about this dramatic conversion. But now, as we get into this section, before we ever even finish out the chapter, he switches back to Peter. And so now we're going to switch back to the apostle Peter, and how the Holy Spirit was at work in and through him there. And so as we get into this section here, is the way Luke starts off. He says, Now, as Peter went here there and among them all, and we read that, and go, Where is here and there, and who are the All right? And remember, we're jumping into this in the middle of a chapter. And so let's go back and look at the verse before this. When we finished up last section, the last section, Luke said. Then the Church throughout Judea, Galilee, Samar and Samaria, enjoyed a time of peace and was strengthening. So the the here and there, as as as Peter was going to Judea and throughout Galilee and Samaria, and he was visiting the all the all is the church. Those who had put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ and were now part of the church in these different areas, we've already seen through eight to nine chapters how God was at work and spreading the gospel and beginning to around all of these areas. And now it seems like the Holy Spirit has led Peter to go around to the various churches that had been planted and to visit those people whose lives have been transformed and changed, and to minister to them, to serve them, to disciple them, and help them learn more about their new life in Christ and and how that applies to their lives and and then to probably share the gospel with those still in their communities who hadn't taken a step of faith and heard the good news of Jesus. And so this is what he was doing whenever we begin to read in verse 32 and now he begins to tell us about one particular place that the Spirit sent him, and what he was up to there. So he said again, now, as Peter went here, there, and among them all, he came down also to the saints who lived at Lydda. Now he's going to tell us about what happened in Lydda in just a moment, but what I want to first draw your attention to is how he references the church. Because he says he came down to also the saints. Now we've talked about this a number of different times here at Colonial hills, especially whenever we're reading Paul's letters and how the Holy Spirit prompted him to write about the church. But I just wanted to make sure that we highlighted that even Luke, as he is describing and being inspired by the Holy Spirit to describe the events of the early church, he references the church those who have put their faith and trust in Jesus for salvation, as saints. Notice that he does not say and that he came down also to all of the poor, wretched sinners who were simply saved by grace, who lived at Lydda, that's that's not what he said. He never calls you. Never hear the church reference that way. You hear people today say that, or just poor, wretched sinners who are, thank goodness, saved by grace. But you go to the scriptures and it bible never, ever references you in that way. After you come to know Christ, it's always saints. This is who you are in Christ. What does that mean to be a saint? Well, saints, the literal word there means to be holy ones, to be set apart, to be separated, to be distinct, to be holy. And so if you you're here today, and you've put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior, you are a saint. You are holy. You are set apart from the rest of those in the world who have not put their faith and trust. You're distinct from them. You have an entirely different nature than the rest. The people in the world who have not yet put their faith in him. How's that possible? Well, because the moment you say yes to Jesus, the Holy Spirit comes to dwell in you. You enter into a spiritual union with Jesus, and Jesus is holy. So in your union with Him, you become a new creation. You're born again. You're now born again into his family. You're a child of God, and so his DNA gets passed to you, the spiritual DNA. If Jesus is holy, and you're in union with Him, and you're a new creation in him, then you also have been made holy. You've been made into a saint. In other words, you are not going to be turned into a saint one day, when you start learning how to finally behave better, you've taken on the nature of a saint, and therefore will begin, over time, to act more and more like the saint that you already are and have become in Christ. So do not let someone tell you that your identity is that of a poor, old, wretched sinner who's saved by grace. This is what the Bible says is true about you. All right now, as Luke goes on and references us in this particular way, or those who were in the church and he had come to the place called Lydda. He tells us what he was now, sending him there for verse 33 says there he found a man named Aeneas who was bedridden for eight years, who was paralyzed. And Peter said to Him, Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you rise and make your bed, and immediately he rose. How cool would it have been to have seen that happen? Right? I mean, to know a paralyzed guy who had been bedridden for eight years, and a guy just looks over at him and says, stand up and take your mat and go home, and he does it. I mean, wow, this is a miracle here, but I call your attention to the way that Peter talks about it.
Peter says, Jesus Christ
heals you. He doesn't say, I heal you. He says, Jesus Christ heals you. He wasn't the one that was going to be doing this, Jesus was going to do it, but he was going to do it in and through him. You may remember last week, whenever we talked about Saul's conversion, and Jesus was talking to him or talking to Ananias, who was going to see him, he said, listen, he is my
chosen. What
instrument? I think one person was listening. My chosen instrument, right? Saul wasn't going to go tell the rest of the Gentiles the good news. Jesus was going to share the good news. He was just going to do it through the instrument of Saul. And that's the same thing that we're seeing here. He looks over Peter knows his role. I'm just an instrument. So I'm here, I'm present. It's going to look like I'm doing it, but I just want you to be clear, Jesus is the one who's going to be doing this in and through you. Now, certainly Jesus was doing this as partly because he loved him and he wanted to help him in this way and make him better. But what we see next is that he was up to something even greater than that. It wasn't just about him. Look at how he goes on in verse 35 he says. And all the residents of Lydda and Sharon saw him, the guy that had been healed, and they turned to the Lord. What does that mean that they turned to the Lord? Well, they turned to him for salvation. They they turned from whatever they were putting their faith in, or whoever they were putting their faith in, and put their faith in Him as the Lord and Savior of their lives. And so even whenever we see Jesus healing someone and making their lives better. Oftentimes, there was a greater purpose, even above and beyond that, that he was going to use to then reach even more people, to capture their attention, to hear the good news about him. And that's certainly what he was doing here. Now that Luke has shared what the Holy Spirit was doing in and through Peter at Lydda, he turns his attention to an area that wasn't very far from there, in what the Lord was doing there or about to do, and what was going on. And so we get into verse 36 and Luke says, Now there was in Joppa, a disciple named Tabitha, which translated means Dorcas. And she was full of good works in acts of charity. Now what I wanted you to draw your attention to on this is not necessarily the names and all of those things, but right here, this one sentence description of what her life was. Is about. It's like Luke is riding along, and he's about to tell us the events of things that happened to Tabitha and the Holy Spirit was up to but he said, You know what? I'm going to include some information about her. What would be a good one sentence description to help the readers who are going to read this know more about who she was and what her life was about, and what it was about, what they noticed. Because let's see if you're going to write a description of who someone is and what their life is about, then you're going to use it based upon the things you've seen. Okay, when I think of that person, what have I seen them acting like? What have I seen them doing? What? What do they do? Over and over again, all throughout their like and the evidence, what they had seen about Tabitha, what Luke had seen, or others would say about her, was, Oh, that's easy. She is someone who's full of good works and acts of charity helping other people. And so my question for you is simply this, if, if Luke, Dr Luke was here today, he was writing scripture, and he was writing about the events that were happening here at Colonial Hills Baptist church and in our church, and all of a sudden, he wanted to write about something that the Spirit did in and with you. And he said, You know what? I need a one to sentence description about them. What is it
that Luke would write about you?
What's your one sentence description
of who you are and what your life is all about?
Man, that guy sure was really good at golf. Let
me tell you, he he spent so much time playing golf. Oh my gosh, you should have seen this guy with his truck. Man, his truck was everything to him. I mean, just always washing it, keeping it clean, making sure it was detailed. That truck was his baby, right? I mean, this guy right here, man, his life was full of video games. Golly, you should see all the video games that he plays. Boy, he could watch some YouTube videos. Oh my gosh. He watched so many YouTube videos that he could tell you about all the YouTube videos that were ever made. It's what his life was about. Her, Oh, her, boy, she now she could put some outfits together. Let me tell you, her life was about making sure that everything matched head to toe, like, things that you couldn't even see all the time were matching whenever she was doing her outfits, right? I mean, oh gosh, she was great at shopping. Let me tell you, she was a shopper. If I'm gonna write something about her, she was full of shopping trips, right? Oh, her boy. She had a great social media presence, let me tell you. I mean, she you should see her page. You should see all the posts that she made about all the things that were going on in her life. I mean, seriously,
what would
your one sentence description be?
It's going to be whatever you spend the most time doing.
If someone's going to write about that, it's going to be what it is that they've seen you doing how you're spending the majority of your time, they're going to say that's what this person's life was all about.
When Luke thought of Tabitha,
the evidence of what her life was all about was being full of good works and acts of charity. Now listen, this is not about Tabitha. It's not about bragging on her and Kylie. What a what a great person, that she was, no, no, she was a disciple, right? We reference that here she's a disciple, which means also that she was a saint, that she had experienced a conversion in her own life, that she had new life in Christ, and now with Jesus working in her, he could work through her to produce those good works. Tabitha understood that she was just a branch, right? A branch can't produce good works. A branch can't produce good fruit, but the vine can. And so if I make myself available as a receiver and a branch to the vine, he'll produce these good works in and through me. But even with her being a new creation, a saint, and all this being possible, let's be honest, she still had a choice. She could still choose to walk in her own power and her own flesh and and and make it all about building her own kingdom, or she can choose to make herself available to receive from the vine, to be used by him to build up his kingdom.
What did Tabitha choose his kingdom?
And so I just want. Wonder how many of us today have been made into saints? How many of us have been made into new creations in Christ's position now for him, the living God, to express his life through us to produce these things are actually allowing him to use us as His instruments, so that if someone was to write a one sentence description of our lives that summarizes what our life is all about. Based on the things that they've seen, they would be able to say, Oh, that's easy. He or she was up to God's Kingdom work and the things that he was doing in and through them. Or if the only thing they'd be able to say was how our lives were mostly full of our own fleshly works and desires to build up our kingdoms and and make our lives more comfortable and experience the pleasures of this world, because that's what Satan would love to do. I mean, that's what he does. He is in a deception business. He's a deceiver, and he wants us to to fall for the lies that Christ is the abundant life that He created us to experience what he's doing in and through us. And he wants to make us feel like, oh, what life is really all about is building up your own kingdom, experiencing your own pleasures, your own comfort. And so we need to know what he's up to, Spot the lies, renew our minds to the truth about who we are in Christ and what he wants to do in and through us the same way that no doubt Tabitha did, in a moment by moment basis. Now, because this was the evidence, because this is what Tabitha was up to. The Holy Spirit was up in and through her, excuse me, in verse 37 we're gonna see some rather unorthodox things begin to happen. In verse 37 it says in those days, she became ill and died, and when they had washed her, they laid her in an upper room. Now, part of that was common and what would normally happen, but then the second half of that wasn't so common and what didn't normally happen in situations like that. It was common for someone to take a body when they died, and to wash the body. But then what was common after that was for them to embalm the body, and then finally, for them to actually bury the body, usually on the day of before it ever transitioned. That's not what they did here. They started step one, they never finished, and they put her in an upper room. Why in the world did they do it this way and not follow through with what was common verse 38 since little was near, Joppa, the disciples, hearing that Peter was there, sent two men to him, urging him, please come to us without delay so she dies, and they only go through part of it and then send him over to send these guys over there to go get Peter, no doubt, because they had heard about Peter doing a pretty big miracle over there, there was a guy who was bedridden and paralyzed for eight years, and he healed him. And so maybe, just maybe, Jesus, through Peter, could do something about her. It's like the people that were in the church. We're going, you know what? No, no, not Tabitha,
somebody else, maybe,
but not Tabitha. She is too important to our church. Go get Peter. We're not embalming her. We're not going to bury her, because she's too important. She can't be gone yet. Go get Peter, and we'll see
what Jesus will do,
no doubt, because the Holy Spirit was up to producing these good works and acts of charity in and through her that were so impactful in the church. Verse 39 so Peter rose and went with them, and when he arrived, they took him into the upper room, and all the widows stood there beside him, weeping and showing tunics and other garments that Dorcas made them while she was with them. Now that think about that, I mean Dorcas has died. She's served them like part of the works of good works, of full of good works and the acts of charity, we learn a little bit more about she ministered to widows. We don't know if that's all she did, but part of the good works and the acts of charity were for widows, and she apparently made clothes for them and so, so this was something that she did while she was alive, but now she's dead, but now the people that she impacted are standing there wearing the clothes that she made when she was alive. They're still being impacted on the other side of death by things that Tabitha did for them when she was alive, because that's the way the Holy Spirit works when it comes to kingdom, things that he does in and through us to impact people. They don't just stop when we're gone, right? He makes impact on other people through us, and then that goes on to continue to impact their lives. And then he works in and through them to impact other it's this trickle down effect all the way through it. These are the things that last. When we make our lives about us and what's going on here and now, it just stops. But when the Holy Spirit is producing those things, the vine in and through us is a branch. These are things that go on and continue to impact people for ever, all of eternity.
These are the things that really do matter.
So he puts them out there, or they're sharing, excuse me, about all of these things whenever he gets there. And then, here's what Peter does, verse 40, then he puts them out. So Peter put them all outside and knelt down and prayed. And turning to the body, he said, Tabitha, arise. And she opened her eyes, and when she saw Peter, she sat up, and then he gave her his hand and raised her up. Then calling the saints, you see that reference again, and the widows, he presented her alive, amazing. I mean Jesus IN and THROUGH Peter heals a guy who had been bedridden and paralyzed for eight years. Man, big deal.
She was dead, and Jesus brought her back to life.
But again, we know that Jesus said in 1125, I am the resurrection and the life. And so maybe we shouldn't be surprised by that. It's who he is. He is the resurrection and the life. He is certainly capable of doing things like this. And I think even when we see him doing which it wasn't something that he did very often, we see this happen. A few times we see Jesus do something in the gospels almost exactly like this, where he put some outside and ministered to a guy named Jairus and raised his daughter from the dead in that situation. But again, just more evidence that this really was Jesus. It wasn't Peter, but he was doing it in and through Peter. But I think when we see things like this and him even raising someone from the dead, I think it should encourage those of us who are in Christ to remember that no matter how bad things do get here sometimes, and how discouraged that we do get, that will experience a bodily resurrection as well, that we get to experience, in some way what she did. And so when we see these things, we go, oh, yeah, this is great. I mean, it's the kind of thing that caused the apostle Paul, when thinking about them, who we just saw the conversion. And he's going to be used to write much of the New Testament in First Corinthians. He's writing about this kind of thing, and it inspired him to write, where O Death is your victory, where O Death is your sting, because there is no victory death if you're in Christ doesn't even have a hold on you. I mean, wow, the hope that we have, even in the face of death, as those who are believers in Christ and so again, this is something that he did no doubt to be a blessing to the church and those that would be impacted by the good works and the acts of charity. But again, it wasn't just about her and even just their church, because look at what we see again, similar to what we saw earlier, verse 42 and it became known all throughout Joppa, and many believed in the Lord. So once again, he did it in for her and for the group that was there, but above and beyond that, the same way that he used the paralytic and the healing of that to open up other people to the good news of Jesus Christ and to transform their lives forever. He does the same thing in and through this miracle to capture their attention so that more and more people can be saved and also experience a bodily resurrection in their lives one day. And then Luke finishes up this section and says, And he stayed in Joppa. Peter. Peter stayed in Joppa for many days with one Simon a tanner, and it's pretty big deal, and we'll get into more of that next week, because it's a really good transition into chapter 10. But I don't want us to lose our focus for today. We've seen what life in the Spirit was like for the early Church throughout this section, and as we've done every single week in this series, now it's time to ask so what does life in the Spirit look like us for today? And we've already covered it really, but just briefly, I'll put them on the screen and continue to ask the Holy Spirit to speak to us about our next steps in these ways. First and foremost, what does this mean? It means life in the Spirit. Means you are a saint who sometimes sins, not a poor, old, wretched sinner saved by grace. Yes, we've already covered this, but this is who you are in Christ. You may not always feel like a saint, you may not always act like a saint, but God's word says you are a saint, and we are to believe what he says is true about us, not what we feel is probably true about us. The reality is, is that the more and more you walk by faith, believing that this is true about you, the more you'll see the outward behaviors that match who you already are, which lead us to the second thing that we highlighted already life in the Spirit, means that you will do good works and help others as he the Holy Spirit, prompts and empowers you to do so. And again, we touched on that for quite a bit of time, when we talked about the one sentence description of Tabitha, and we're trying to think about what ours would really be. And I think that's a good homework exercise. Hopefully the Lord's already spoken to you about that, but if not, then maybe the homework is for you to get alone this week and some space and ask the Spirit to reveal to you. Man, if people were to write a one sentence description about me, what would they really write? And that will cause us to think about the way we're spending the majority of our time, and whether it's the activity that the Holy Spirit is doing in and through us, or whether it's our own fleshly behaviors to serve ourselves and meet our own needs, rather than be used by him to bless and serve others and meet their needs and share the good news of the gospel or of Jesus Christ with them. And then finally, the last thing is just that life in the Spirit means that that that you've already experienced a spiritual resurrection. That already happened. You were spiritually dead. Now you're spiritually alive. But that means that someday, you are guaranteed to experience a physical, bodily resurrection. And so if you're in Christ, you you know where you are going to spend eternity. You have hope of a better day to come. And the really good news is that if you're not in Christ, you haven't taken that step to receive His free gift of salvation, that it does not matter who you are, where you've been, what you've done, you are not too far for the reach in the hand of God. Jesus loves you. He came willingly to die for you. He took all your sins to the cross, paid the penalty for them, and was raised from the dead, defeating the power of sin and death forever. And he offers that forgiveness and eternal life to you as a gift, if you'll just receive it by faith. I'll give you an opportunity to do that as we close out our time in this moment.